--- title: "Not ready for a PIM? How to manage product data in the meantime" description: "A product information management system isn't always the right first step. These four approaches keep your product data under control until it is, with real examples." url: https://www.pivale.co/blog/managing-product-data-before-a-pim/ date: 2026-10-19 author: "Darren Fisher" tags: ["Advice", "Ecommerce", "Integrations"] publisher: Pivale (https://www.pivale.co) --- # Not ready for a PIM? How to manage product data in the meantime ## Where does your product data live? Ask a manufacturer or distributor where their product information lives and you'll often get a nervous laugh. Specs in a spreadsheet on someone's desktop. Prices in the ERP. Product photos in a shared drive called "FINAL images (use these ones)". And the website showing last year's dimensions, because nobody remembered to update it. The textbook answer is a PIM: a product information management system that holds one master version of every product, which every channel then pulls from. Pair it with a DAM (digital asset management) for your images, drawings and documents, and you've got one source of truth. But a PIM isn't always the right first step. Sometimes the budget isn't there yet. Sometimes the data is in such a state that putting it into a PIM would just give you a very expensive mess. And sometimes nobody in the business owns product data, so a new system wouldn't stay accurate for long anyway. So what do you do in the meantime? Here are four approaches we've used with clients, and the signs it's time to move on to the real thing. ## 1. Make one spreadsheet the master If spreadsheets are where your product data lives, don't fight it. Make them work properly instead. We worked with a multinational manufacturer who had grown through acquisitions and didn't have a single store of product data. Setting up a full PIM wasn't viable at the time, so we worked with their marketing and engineering teams on a different plan: the product teams keep their data in a set of spreadsheets in Office 365, and a custom importer loads them straight into the websites. The trick was in the structure. Each spreadsheet has fixed columns that every product must have, plus flexible columns that change from one product range to the next, for things like dimensions or category tags. The importer checks the data before anything goes live, with automated tests behind it, so a typo doesn't end up on the website. The result was that the teams manage product data in a tool they already know, and the website stays in step with it. And because the data now has a consistent shape, moving to a full PIM later becomes much easier. ![Printed data sheets and a table of figures beside a laptop on a desk.](https://assets.pivale.co/blog/managing-product-data-before-a-pim/img-01.jpg?v=58b42bfb) ## 2. Let your website be the catalogue For some businesses, the website itself can do the job of a PIM and a DAM. [Adelco](https://www.pivale.co/work/adelco/), who makes digital textile printing, screen printing and drying equipment, didn't have an ERP, a PIM or a DAM when we built their website. So the website became their product catalogue and image library. Each machine has structured fields for its specifications, its images live alongside it, and every enquiry form sends leads straight to Adelco's Salesforce CRM. This works well when your website is the main place product information is published, and when your range is a manageable size. If you also need to feed distributors, marketplaces or print catalogues, you'll start to feel the limits. ## 3. Give your images one home Even without a DAM, you can stop the "which version is the right one?" hunt: - Pick one place for approved images and documents, and make it the only place. - Agree a naming convention that includes the product code, for example `AB-1234-front.jpg`. - Keep old versions in an archive folder, not mixed in with the current ones. - Decide who's allowed to add or replace an approved image. It's not glamorous, but it saves hours, and it means you're ready to move everything into a DAM later. ## 4. Decide who owns the data This is the step everyone skips, and it's the one that matters most. Software can't fix product data that nobody is responsible for. Name an owner for each type of data: who signs off a new product, who updates prices, who approves images. Write down which fields are required before a product goes live. Then check the data regularly, rather than waiting for a customer to spot the mistake. ## Signs it's time for a PIM The approaches above can carry you a long way, but at some point you'll outgrow them. It's probably time for a PIM and DAM when: - The same product information is typed into more than one system. - You publish to several channels: websites, distributors, marketplaces, print. - You sell in several languages or regions, with different specs or availability in each. - New products are held up waiting for someone to enter data by hand. - Out-of-date specs or images keep appearing in front of customers. If that sounds familiar, have a look at how we approach [PIM and DAM](https://www.pivale.co/solutions/pim-dam/) projects. And if you're not sure whether you're ready, [let's talk it through](https://www.pivale.co/contact/). Sometimes the right answer is a better spreadsheet! --- Source: https://www.pivale.co/blog/managing-product-data-before-a-pim/. Pivale is a UK digital consultancy. Book a 30-minute call at https://www.pivale.co/contact/ or email hello@pivale.co.